TWO MONTHS AFTER his election as the first American
president to exceed two terms in office, Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a forceful message to Congress. Although the United States still
steered a course of technical neutrality between the Axis and the
Allies, this speech was as belligerent as a combat leader's exhortation
to his troops. Aggressors and appeasers must be defeated. The arsenal
of the free world must produce the weapons which will crush the
dictatorships.

And what was the ultimate purpose behind this flexing of the
national muscle? It was to provide a "moral order" superior to the
new order of tyranny that "the dictators seek to create with the
crash of a bomb":

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward
to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is the freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in
the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own
way--everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want--which, translated into world
terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every
nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants--everywhere in the
world.

The fourth is freedom from fear--which, translated into world
terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point
and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to
commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor--
anywhere in the world.1

It is instructive to compare this famous enumeration with a nearly
forgotten summary of domestic objectives offered just a few para-

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